ARMY CHIEFS’ POST-RETIREMENT POLITICAL STATEMENTS AND CIVIL-MILITARY TRUST DEFICIT IN PAKISTAN, 2008–2022

Abstract

This paper investigates how the civil military trust deficit between 2008 and 2022 occurred as a result of post-retirement political statements by the chiefs of the Pakistani army. The study explains the role these words played by changing views on the military intervention in the political arena and consequent contravention of the civil leadership in the non-military system. Through qualitative research, the study examines cases of public oratory, media interviews and political commentaries in order to evaluate the meaning of public oratory and commentary. Evidence suggests that these utterances have massively negated civilian institutions and have consequently eroded confidence in the democratic processes. The paper is summarized by drawing the larger concern on the democratic stability of the Pakistani regime and the necessity of demarcation between the military and the civilian.